Understanding Buddy

           “Goodnight Jason,” said Frank to his son.  His daughter, Sarah, was sick in bed, and he was nervous about leaving her with the babysitter.  He kissed Jason on the head, glanced at his sleeping daughter’s room, and turned to the sitter.  “Okay, Elise, their mother should be home by nine, and if you have any problems…” he stopped mid-sentence to scold Buddy, the family dog.  It seemed he was always demanding Frank’s attention.  “Just call me on my cell phone – oh and I put the number on the cabinet and – Buddy you’re making me mad.  Off the couch!”

            “It’ll all be fine, Mr. Smith,” said Elise, cutting him off.  “You’ll be late if you don’t leave now.”  Frank was about to say more, but Elise’s convincing smile told him everything was under control.  He waved goodbye and walked out the door, pushing Buddy out of the way.  He was really aggravated now.  He opened the door to his car, slid in, and was on his way to work.  He was thinking about how Buddy could be so annoying.

            Frank came past the fire station and parked in the only spot left reserved for employees.  This was Frank’s job.  He was a firefighter.

            Frank walked straight to the living room in the fire station and planted himself on the couch.  His eyes were immediately glued to the television.

            Of all the others in the room, only one noticed Frank’s arrival.  “Hey, Frank.  How are you doing?” asked William.  He didn’t wait for an answer, though, but just stared back at the television.  That got the attention of the others, who all greeted Frank, but did the same thing and got lost in the television right afterwards.  This is what the firefighters usually did until they were called to put out a fire. 

            Soon Frank and a few others gave in for the night and climbed into bed.  Frank stretched and yawned.  He thought about how whenever he came home, his golden retriever, Buddy, would be at the door when he opened it.  Buddy always got too excited and jumped, and Jason would hold onto one side of him while Sarah held the other to keep him down.  Buddy would lick both of them in the face and they would let go to wipe the drool off their faces.  Buddy would jump around again until he got tired and fell asleep on the couch.  He wasn’t supposed to go on the couch, but he always did.  He wasn’t supposed to do a lot of things.  Frank frowned to himself.  He didn’t like it when Buddy jumped up on the couch.  As a matter of fact, there wasn’t much he did like about Buddy. 

            What seemed like only a few moments later, a loud alarm sounded and Frank’s eyes popped open.  He leaped out of bed and jumped into his fire gear.  He piled into a truck next to all the other firefighters.  The siren blared and sounded and the truck sped into action.  The firefighters were on their way to put out a fire.

            The brakes screeched and everyone rushed out of the truck.  The family who owned the house was outside, watching the flames eat up their home.  Their son was wailing.  “My dog!  I need Callie!  I need her!” he screeched.

            Frank knew how much people loved their pets sometimes.  He didn’t understand this, but others seemed to.  So while the other men doused the flames, Frank hurried into the house and searched for the dog.  It didn’t take very long for Frank to find her.  She was near the back door, trying to decide whether to go through the flames or not.  She was so frightened that she reminded Frank of a mouse stuck in a trap, half dead, half alive, not sure what to do next.  He scooped up the small dog and lugged her toward the door.  She seemed to be thankful for this because she kept trying to get her little head under Frank’s mask to give him a dog kiss.  She finally succeeded and the mask slipped off.  Frank took in a couple of breaths of the smoky air and felt dizzy.  He managed to get out of the door and then fell to the ground.  He felt more dog kisses and opened his eyes a little, as he felt himself being lifted and heaved into the truck.  He heard a siren and knew he was headed for the hospital.  He drifted off into a deep sleep, picturing the horrible chaos of what happened when he came home:  the dog drool, his sharp voice commanding “Sit, Buddy, sit,” and the disgusted, but laughing faces of the kids.  He wanted to be with them now worse than ever. 

            The next thing Frank knew, he was in an unfamiliar place that he was sure he had never seen before.  He was right outside a shop door that read, “Eye Care & Co.”.  He was about to walk away when a man with glasses came out.  Frank was in his way.  The man looked down at him and smiled.  Frank looked at the face belonging to the man.  The sun reflected off the clean and obviously new glasses.  He politely stepped out of the man’s way. 

            Frank started to wonder where he could be.  He looked for things that he could possibly recognize, walking for a long time before he got to a familiar street.  He looked way up at the street sign and stopped walking.  “Hey, that’s Buchanan Avenue!  That’s my street,” he said to himself a little too loudly.  Some people walking by stared at him.  As he walked up the street, he passed the cemetery and quickly, but cautiously, crossed the street.  There were no cars in sight and the only sounds that Frank heard were chirping birds.  He turned left and headed for home.

            Frank walked and walked, which was strange.  He couldn’t remember his house being so far from the cemetery.  Then again, Frank reminded himself, he never walked home from anywhere either.  He always used his car, which he thought to be more convenient.  Frank continued on, but there was no sign of his house.  He decided to take a rest on the lawn in front of the closest house. 

            As he was sitting down, Frank noticed something familiar about the house in front of him.  What was it?  The color of the door?  The flowers in front?  It looked so familiar.  In a way, both of his ideas were wrong, but they were right, too.  It was not the door or the flowers; the whole entire house was his.

            Frank got excited.  He felt like he hadn’t seen his family in so long.  He ran up the front steps and knocked on the door.  Sarah, who was doing homework in the next room, came to answer the door.  Frank was glad to see her and to know that she was feeling better, but she wasn’t even half as glad to see him.  She slammed the door in his face.  “Mom there’s a strange man at the door,” she yelled.  Her mother came up from the laundry room. 

            The door opened again.  “Hi, Lauren.  May I…” Frank stammered.

            “Okay, whatever you want to sell me, I don’t want it,” she snapped.  “You people are always so annoying.”  The door was shut again.

            Jason obviously wanted a turn, too, because he opened and closed the door in his father’s face next.

            Frank felt like crying.  Was he being punished?  All he wanted to do was be with his family.  He was so happy to see them.  He wanted to hug them, to tell them how happy he was to see them – how happy he was that he was home.  Unfortunately they didn’t care.   Frank scratched his head.  Suddenly he felt very tired and very alone.  He felt like he was being treated like….well….sort of like he treated Buddy.  He didn’t like the way it felt.  Frank looked around for a place to sleep.  He curled up in a ball on the lawn under a tree and was asleep as soon as his head hit the ground.

            When Frank woke up he was in a different place yet again.  It had white walls, and he was very comfortable- in a bed.  This was the hospital.  Lauren and Jason were next to his bed.           

            The first thing he said was, “Where’s Sarah?”

            Lauren smiled.  “She’s sick, silly.  Remember?”

            Suddenly a flashback of everything that had happened went through Frank’s mind.  “So that was just a dream,” he said out loud.  Lauren and Jason looked confused, but Frank didn’t need to explain.

            As soon as they had a doctor’s permission, the family left for home.  When they got there, Buddy was excited, of course, but this time the one who softly calmed him down was Frank.  And he even let him sleep on the couch.

 “Understanding Buddy”
Emily L.-D’A.
Grade 5
District 97
Prose